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In My Kitchen November 2016

I sort of forgot to do last month’s In My Kitchen and by the time I remembered it was a bit too late, so I’m super early for this month!

In My Kitchen is a monthly blog link up that is currently being hosted by Lizzy at Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things Blog. I’m submitting this blog post of mine for November 2016. While not a vegan-specific event, anyone can join in and you can also discover new blogs, recipes, products, etc!

For a long while now I’ve had trouble leaving comments on some blogs so I do apologise for not returning comments. I’ve tried to leave comments over at the blogs of people who have left comments here, but some don’t go through 🙁

In My Kitchen are some new spices and stuff. I’m cringing at the plastic packaging but I can’t find stuff like this in any other kind of packaging than plastic. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them all just yet but the ‘Zalt It’s Not Salt’ salt alternative has a nice list of ingredients: paprika, amchur (mango), onion, black lime powder, bay leaves, ginger. I’m looking forward to using the Indian bay leaves and as for the black salt, I misplaced my other packet which has proved a great source of frustration because it can only be in my kitchen but I still can’t find it. I have been thinking a lot about French food lately, hence the Herbes de Provence purchase. Speaking of French things, there’s the Paris to Provence festival on in Melbourne (at Como House & Garden) from Nov 18 to 20 (not a free event though purchasing tickets online allows you to enter a draw for a trip to France).

I asked my husband to buy cherry tomatoes when he went out grocery shopping and he came home with these cute little truss tomatoes which were quite nice, though not as sweet as I was hoping:

In My Kitchen is a source of great excitement in the form of the brand new Smith & Daughters cookbook. I bought it today and read through it on the tram ride home and I love that they have included some of the dishes from the restaurant I love, like the kale leek bake:

My son and I made some bread using the recipe on the box of bread flour. I misread the instructions and stared baking it after one rise instead of leaving it to rise a second time. It still tasted good enough and worked well as toast. I love baking bread but it disappears because I have no control over eating it and instead of eating a nice healthy wholefoods meals with my protein carbs and veg, I end up having more bread if I’m feeling too lazy to put a meal together for myself:

In My Kitchen are these two coconut bowls, purchased from World Vegan Day Melbourne on Oct. 23rd:

When I was waiting in the queue at Smith & Deli I picked up this porcini powder. It’s sitting on top of my favourite coaster made by MAD Products:

And of course my kitchen wouldn’t be complete without one big fluffball hanging around. Here’s Malty not quite fitting in to this tub (his bum hangs out) but that doesn’t stop him from taking a nap. Actually this is a bit of a cheat as this photo isn’t in our kitchen, but in the room where the kids do their school work. Whenever the kids try to do work at the desk Malty here jumps up all over their books and headbutts their hands and tries to chew on the pencils. You can’t feel annoyed though when his purr is like a lawn mower:

… and now I have to clean that kitchen though I might procrastinate a bit and read through the Smith & Daughters cookbook a second time 😉

Theres a little place in Cardiff that does spices, i love to frequent it and often come home with something recently it was horseradish powder and beetroot powder. I’d like to know more about that cookbook having never heard of it, i do think vegan cuisine in Australia is far more progressive than in the UK, though we are catching up, so please let me know more esp the kind of recipes in it and if its something you’d recommend. Ah homemade bread, good to hear you got some extra mitts to help you. I am hoping to make a loaf this w/e now that i got some yeast. Porcini powder seems to be popular at the moment. I’ve been thinking of making my own – hope to join in IMK too.

I still can’t leave comments on your blog (and some others) 🙁 I always buy spices with plans but never use them (hello file powder…) Smith & Daughters is a vegan restaurant here that has been super popular from day one (it’s a few years old now) and has won people’s choice kinds of awards. Last year the owners started Smith & Deli which is equally popular and now they’ve just released the cookbook with recipes they make in the restaurant. I’ll definitely be doing a review!

Not sure what the problem is with the commenting, and if its not just mine – may be an issue with blogger – hope it resolves itself as it is annyoying – i do love hearing from other bloggers and noted lack of comments recently,so this may explain the reason. I look forward to your review of Smith and Daughters as you have tempted me to treat myself to it perhaps for Christmas.

I did a spice blending session at Herbies and it was great. I concur about the plastic packaging, not ideal. Still a bit early for the tomatoes, waiting anxiously for those lovely seasonal fresh ones. Yum!

Your bread looks really good – I think missing the second rise is probably not too terrible – at least it rose at least once. I find fresh bread hard to resist as well. On good days I have it with either soup or salad and feel at least I have some good food – bad days it is a peanut butter sandwich! The smith and daughters cookbook sounds exciting and I make omelettes often with black salt but that is all I use it for and it does smell awful but seems to give a little of the right flavour. Love all the other flavourings too – the zalt sounds good for when I need a boost in flavour but don’t want to add more salt

I bought the Zalt because I’m doing the salt free thing but I was surprised to see the list of ingredients was better than I thought. The S&D cookbook is really good, lovely photos. I never eat bread from places like Bakers Delight (unless it’s sourdough because I don’t mind theirs but I mean more the wholemeal sliced loaves for the kids sandwiches) but yes, my own bread or sourdough is just too much to resist!

Is that porcini powder just mushroom or are there other flavors mixed in? I bought a heap of mixed dried mushrooms always intending to grind some up as a flavoring but have just kept re-hydrating the fungi and cooking with them. Can you just use it as a finishing season or does it have to be cooked a bit? I guess if I sprinkled it on something hot that would ‘cook’ it enough. Malty is such a beauty <3

it’s 100% porcini, now I just have to figure out how and where to use it because I can’t find (or even remember) the recipes I had seen where I thought oooh I have to buy the porcini powder to make this. So annoying! I also have dried shiitakes that are sitting all ignored in the cupboard so I should do something with those.

the Zalt was quite nice! I wish they came in glass jars too, I have a bit of a thing for buying herbs and spices but often don’t end up using them like the file powder which should probably be thrown out by now!

Your spice selection looks great. I actually like plastic packaging as I bought little glass jars for spices and then they go in there – but so many stores here only stock them in tubs and then it seems silly to transfer the spices across!

Thanks Mae! I have to work out what to cook, I don’t have any French cookbooks because I stick to mostly plant based cookbooks but my library has heaps. I think I’ll have to do some research so I can use the French mixes 😀

Your kitty looks like our Lucy, who isn’t nearly as friendly. Prior to her we had Clawdius who would lay on my keyboard while I was working…always wanting to be in the middle of things. How are you going to use the porcini powder? I have some in my cupboard that I haven’t used yet.

what a gorgeous puss. so cute. love the spices you have there. yes it is hard to buy them without plastic tho we do have a spice store up the road which sells in bulk so you can bring your own container. love the bread!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome! I'm Faye and I blog about vegan life here in Melbourne, Australia. I love connecting readers with news of events, dining options, products, services and anything else that can help people already living, or those considering switching to a more plant based lifestyle. Family, my Greek roots, secondhand shopping and my home town are also a focus on my blog.